Homemade Cranberry Orange Cream Cheese has a touch of cinnamon, fresh orange zest and cranberry (of course!). It tastes like the holidays and is so festive for breakfast, spread on a Thanksgiving leftover sandwich or used in holiday baking!

I love cream cheese. I have made no bake cheesecakes in every flavor imaginable. Spread it on puff pastry, added it to dips and whipped it into frosting. I even made a Cake Batter cream cheese for my birthday. That says cream cheese love if I’ve ever seen it. So, with the holidays quickly approaching, I wanted to make a flavored cream cheese perfect for sandwiches piled high with Thanksgiving leftovers or to spread on bagels for an easy Christmas morning breakfast.

Cranberry Orange Cream Cheese

You know I am all about simple recipes, so if you can use a hand mixer, then you can make this Cranberry Orange Cream Cheese. Well, you do have to zest an orange, but if you want to take a short cut, then use a few drops of orange essential oil or orange extract. I haven’t tested those substitutes, but they would probably work just fine.

{Honestly, I love my zester and use it all the time! Lemon zest on roasted veggies, lime zest on homemade tortilla chips, orange zest for holiday baking … And since I have sold you on a zester, zest a few oranges to make this Orange Vanilla Sugar or limes to make Lime Salt for holiday gifts!}

Okay, back to cream cheese … the pairing of cranberry + orange + cinnamon really channels all of the flavors that I associate with the holidays. I can’t wait to try this on a sandwich stacked with leftover stuffing, turkey and gravy. Do you do leftover sandwiches in your home?!

Since you’ve made it to the recipe, I’ll go ahead and share the short cut, secret ingredient in this flavored cream cheese.

Jellied cranberry sauce.

Yep, that Thanksgiving classic right from the can. Now, don’t turn your nose up yet 😉 The cranberry sauce provides a subtle cranberry flavor without a ton of work. You can totally use homemade cranberry sauce if you are so inclined. My boys – neither of whom will admit they like cranberries – gobbled this up!

Cranberry Orange Cream Cheese

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Ingredients

Scale

Two 8 oz. blocks cream cheese (softened)
One 4 oz. can jellied cranberry sauce
Zest of one orange
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon

Instructions

In a mixing bowl (or the bowl of your stand mixer), use a hand mixer to blend the softened cream cheese and cranberry sauce together until smooth.
Blend in cinnamon and orange zest.
Refrigerate until serving.

This recipe makes 16 oz. of Cranberry Orange Cream Cheese. Which may seem like a lot for just morning bagels. But stay tuned, because I am going to use it in another recipe this week that will knock the socks off of breakfast!